You may have heard that WordPress is popular. That may be an understatement. According to recent figures, over 35% of the web is now powered by WordPress. Or, to put it another way, that’s somewhere around 455,000,000 websites using the platform! Not bad, for what started out as a fringe blogging tool, way back in 2003. The platform’s growth is truly phenomenal, but what is it about WordPress, almost two decades after its launch, that makes it so dominant? Let’s dive in and find out the top reasons for its still expanding popularity.
It Adapts to Your Needs
WordPress began as a blogging platform, that much is true. And obviously, it served that purpose efficiently, or it would never have gained traction. But if you believe that nowadays it’s still just a blogging platform, then you’re mistaken. One of WordPress’ huge advantages is that it has grown to become endlessly adaptable, and it can now serve a vast range of online requirements.
Versatility is its strength, so whether it’s WordPress for enterprise, eCommerce, business sites, landing pages, portfolios, galleries, or almost anything else, you’re on safe ground. Thanks in large part to its expansive range of plugins and off-the-shelf themes, WordPress can cover most users’ needs as standard, and with not much technical knowledge required.
The WordPress Community is Huge
When you’re getting to grips with new tech, it’s incredibly useful to have community support. What you really want is a situation in which whatever your problem might be, when you Google it, you find thousands of other users had the exact same issue, and several of them wrote a blog about it. Use WordPress, and that’s the exact scenario you’ll experience. Whenever you need assistance, you’re almost certain of finding a walk-through guide teaching you how to navigate the obstacle.
This also means there are massive amounts of innovation happening in the WordPress ecosystem. Developers are constantly building new plugins and themes, and improving on the ones that already exist, so that WordPress sites can be, as mentioned, adapted to suit any purpose.
Ease of Use
As detailed in the previous point, there is an abundance of support should you encounter any problems. However, don’t imagine that you are likely to get stuck often. Another attractive feature of WordPress is that it’s extremely user-friendly, and works straight out of the box.
If you have coding knowledge, you can use what you know and get even more out of WordPress, but the reality is that you can get your WordPress site up and running without ever having looked at a line of code in your life. The user interface is intuitive, and customization is straightforward. For both the tech-minded, and those who just want a product that works straight away, WordPress does the job well.
SEO is Simple
Being properly SEO optimized is a must for any site that aims to have a lot of incoming traffic. SEO is a full-time occupation for some people, but with WordPress, it’s easy to get to grips with quickly. Take a look at the plugins, and you’ll find a wide array of SEO tools that are ready to go, and proven to work. Among the most widely used is Yoast, and even if you don’t go any further than that, you can have a well optimized site working to your advantage in even the most competitive of markets.
Furthermore, WordPress sites themselves are easy for search engines to crawl, so there is a certain amount of optimization that comes pre-built in, even if you don’t take any further action (although you should take further action, if you’re serious about climbing the rankings.)
WordPress Scales
As your project grows, your website must be capable of scaling to meet increased demands. WordPress proves, every single day and across all industries, that it can meet such demands. Whatever new requirements a project might have, and that could include, for example, dealing with a huge influx of new customers, WordPress will have plugins and themes that allow you to grow.
But what if the market itself suddenly changes, and a new trend emerges? Well, that’s not a problem either. With the vast number of developers specializing in the WordPress ecosystem, it almost doesn’t matter what curve balls get thrown, as there is a wealth of talent who will immediately get to action in response. In terms of dealing with growth and change, WordPress excels.
It’s the Best There is for Blogging
WordPress started as a humble blogging platform, so let’s come full circle and end with a word on blogging. For all its immense growth, adaptation, and market dominance, leading it to be the first choice across industries, when it comes to the simple art of blogging, WordPress is still the best choice.
Its editor is elegant, its themes are clean, and the plugins and SEO tools all work to a dedicated blogger’s advantage. And should your blog, one day, become a magazine, then as we know, scaling is no problem.
Large or small, complex or straightforward, WordPress has developed to have all bases covered.
